Life Sciences Commons^™

Black Garlic Extract As An Antiviral For Herpes Simplex Virus-2 In Lung Cells, Jenna Rose Horowitz

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Allicin, a sulfur compound, is known for providing garlic with its unique fragrance and taste, as well as for its antimicrobial properties. This is one of many antioxidant compounds found in garlic, along with polyphenols and flavonoids. When raw garlic is aged using high temperatures and high humidity levels, it develops a black color and a sweeter taste. Garlic in this form, referred to as black garlic, contains higher levels of antioxidants than fresh garlic. Antioxidants play a vital role in alleviating cellular stress during viral infections. Once a virus particle attaches and enters a host cell, a slew of …

Nebline, May 2023

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

The 4-H Thriving Model Provides a Guide for Helping Youth Grow to Their Full Potential by Tracy Anderson

Beef: A Healthy and Delicious Choice for Your Next Meal by Kayla Colgrove

Recipe of the Month: Skillet Lasagna by Kayla Colgrove

Managing Chlorosis in Trees by Sarah Browning

Garden Guide: Things to Do This Month

May is the Perfect Time to Learn More About Your Drinking Water! by Becky Schuerman

Cash Rent Survey

Challenging Behavior Corner: Providing Choices by Hayley Jackson

Pollinator Spotlight: The Yucca Moth by Kait Chapman

At Ag Literacy Festival, 4th Graders Learn How Agriculture Impacts Their Daily …

Genetic Implications Of Language Acquisition, Marissa Renee Ciccarini

Honors Scholar Theses

The argument about whether language acquisition is "nature" or "nurture" has been long debated. Linguists have concluded that it requires the two, but how much does language acquisition rely on nature? Children show the capacity to learn languages quickly and without much effort. While research suggests that infants absorb many visual and verbal cues in their environment, biological structures are the underlying component of how this knowledge is gathered and organized. The genetics that code for specific neurophysiological pathways affect how people interact with their environment and where information is stored, forming the basis for these biological structures. Genetic research …

Oxalic Acid Leaf Disk Soak Assay Is A New Possibility In Screening For Blight Resistance In Castanea Species, Kaitlyn Harden

Honors Theses

Chestnut blight is a disease caused by the ascomycete fungus Cryphonectria parasitica in the Castanea species. The fungus uses oxalic acid (OA) to attack the tree’s cells. Castanea dentata, the American chestnut, was wiped out by chestnut blight in the early to mid-20th century, but several East Asian Castanea species appear highly resistant to the fungus. To breed resistant American type trees, screening methods are used to enable selection of interspecific hybrids. The alternative small stem assay (aSSA) is a method of screening container-grown hybrid seedlings during their first growing season by directly infecting them with C. parasitica. Some plant …

Assessing The Utility Of High-Throughput Phenotyping For Ecological Applications, Annabree Corlew

Honors Theses

A phenotype describes the expressed traits of an organism. These traits can provide insight into interactions between an organism and its environment, making them a key focus of ecological research. But the process of phenotyping traits can be tedious to collect for large-scale experiments. High-throughput phenotyping software has the ability to speed up the phenotyping process by allowing multiple traits to be phenotyped at once. However, the utility of this relatively new and continually developing computational tool is still being assessed, especially beyond applications focused on agricultural crops and grasses. I investigated the accuracy and efficiency of the open-access high-throughput …

Species Diversity Of Coleoptera Populations In An Urban Garden In Chattanooga, Tennessee, Mallory Anderson

Honors Theses

Insects are an essential part of the function of ecosystems. The majority of entomological faunistic research has been conducted primarily in rural areas due to high diversity, space for bulky traps, and less outside influence from human activities. However, the need for time-series insect biodiversity data, in rural areas and urban areas alike, is paramount in the wake of our current sixth mass extinction event. Previous research has shown that the greater Chattanooga area is comprised of a diverse population of insects in the Coleoptera (beetles) order, and as shown in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s (UTC) Insect Collection. …

Role Of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Exoenzymes S, T, And Y In The Modulation Of Intrinsic Apoptosis In Pulmonary Microvascular Endothelial Cells, Andrea M. Vavrinek

Honors Theses

P. aeruginosa is the most common cause of ventilator-associated pneumonia in ICU patients. P. aeruginosa uses a type III secretion system to inject exoenzymes S, T, U, and Y into host cells, exhibiting unique effects. Pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (PMVECs) are used to evaluate cellular changes caused by exoenzymes. ExoY infection of PMVECs leads to cell rounding but does not lead to cell death, unlike ExoS/T. The current study evaluated the exoenzyme-induced modulation of intrinsic apoptosis in endothelial cells. Strain PAK, producing ExoS, T, and Y, was compared to isogenic strains expressing either S, SY, T, TY, Y, or none …

Immobilization And Its Effects On Functional Recovery After Spinal Cord Injury., William H. Gregory

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Recovery, or rather the failure to recover, is a perplexing issue of spinal cord injury that is currently being investigated. This issue becomes more puzzling when investigating models in which spinal cord injury (SCI) is studied. There appears to be greater functional recovery experienced by animals within these models after injury as compared to patients in the clinical setting. While many things could contribute to this disparity, one difference that stands out when comparing the basic research model and clinical experience of SCI is the inactivity and limb disuse after the injury. This same level of immobility is rarely accounted …

The Emerging Oral Pathogen, Filifactor Alocis, Modulates Antimicrobial Responses In Primed Human Neutrophils., Ian J. Snider

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Periodontitis is an irreversible, chronic inflammatory, infectious disease of the oral cavity that affects approximately half of all adults 30 years or older in the USA. The oral cavity is under high immune surveillance because of its constant exposure to microbes in the environment. The primary immune cell responsible for this surveillance is the neutrophil. Pathogens associated with periodontitis possess virulence factors and have evolved strategies to evade neutrophil antimicrobial responses to survive. One such pathogen is Filifactor alocis, whose presence is associated with the progression of periodontitis. F. alocis manipulates several neutrophil antimicrobial functional responses to avoid killing, an …

Impacts Of Dietary Restriction On A Drosophila Model Of Werner Syndrome, Eileen Sember

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Werner syndrome (WS) is an autosomal recessive disorder that results in premature aging and occurs in 1 in 1,000,0000 to 1 in 10,000,000 people. In humans, WS is the result of mutations that render the WRN gene, that contains a helicase and an exonuclease domain, non-functional. Currently, there is no cure for WS in humans, making dietary and lifestyle interventions attractive for increasing the quality and longevity of lives. Diet restriction (DR) has been shown to extend the lifespan of several model organisms, including Drosophila melanogaster, making it a strong candidate for WS treatment. In this thesis, mutant flies …

Impacts Of Bacterial Evolution On Host Lethality In Drosophila, Andrew Preston

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Evolution is the process by which species change their genetic traits, such as the pathogenicity of bacteria, over time in response to changes in their environment. Although the genetic mechanisms underlying many evolutionary processes have been revealed, it is still not well understood how opportunistic pathogens, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, become virulent. The overall goal of this thesis is to test the Coincidental Evolution Hypothesis, which proposes that the virulence of opportunistic pathogens evolves coincidentally as a by-product of their interaction with their natural predators. I hypothesized that the virulence of ancestral Pseudomonas aeruginosa changes over time if it co-evolves …

Accelerating Colorectal Cancer Screening And Follow-Up Through Implementation Science (Accsis) In Appalachia: Protocol For A Group Randomized, Delayed Intervention Trial, Electra D. Paskett, Aaron J. Kruse-Diehr, Jill M. Oliveri, Robin C. Vanderpool, Darrell M. Gray Ii, Michael L. Pennell, Bin Huang, Gregory S. Young, Darla Fickle, Mark Cromo, Mira L. Katz, Paul L. Reiter, Melinda Rogers, David A. Gross, Vickie Fairchild, Wendy Xu, Angela Carman, Jean M. Walunis, Ann Scheck Mcalearney, Timothy R. Huerta, Saurabh Rahurkar, Erika Biederman, Mark B. Dignan

UK CARES Faculty Publications

Appalachian regions of Kentucky and Ohio are hotspots for colorectal cancer (CRC) mortality in the USA. Screening reduces CRC incidence and mortality; however, screening uptake is needed, especially in these underserved geographic areas. Implementation science offers strategies to address this challenge. The aim of the current study was to conduct multi-site, transdisciplinary research to evaluate and improve CRC screening processes using implementation science strategies. The study consists of two phases (Planning and Implementation). In the Planning Phase, a multilevel assessment of 12 health centers (HC) (one HC from each of the 12 Appalachian counties) was conducted by interviewing key informants, …

Combination Therapy With Trastuzumab And Niraparib: Quantifying Early Proliferative Alterations In Her2+ Breast Cancer Models, Ameer Mansur, Patrick N. Song, Yun Lu, Andrew C. Burns, Luke Sligh, Eddy S. Yang, Anna G. Sorace

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

HER2–targeted treatments have improved survival rates in HER2+ breast cancer patients, yet poor responsiveness remains a major clinical obstacle. Recently, HER2+ breast cancer cells, both resistant and responsive to HER2–targeted therapies, have demonstrated sensitivity to poly–(ADP– ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibition, independent of DNA repair deficiencies. This study seeks to describe biological factors that precede cell viability changes in response to the combination of trastuzumab and PARP inhibition. Treatment response was evaluated in HER2+ and HER2– breast cancer cells. Further, we evaluated the utility of 3′–Deoxy–3′–[18F]–fluorothymidine positron emission tomography ([18F]FLT–PET) imaging for early response assessment in a HER2+ patient derived xenograft …

Plasticity Of Sorghum Biomass And Inflorescence Traits In Response To Nitrogen Application, Kyle M. Linders

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Nitrogen is an essential nutrient required for growth and development in plants. Insufficient nitrogen availability can reduce vegetative growth and grain yield. However, nitrogen is a costly input for farmers, is energy intensive to manufacture, and runoff of excess nitrogen fertilizer impacts water quality. Compared to its close relative, maize, sorghum has much greater resilience to nitrogen and water deficit, and heat stress, allowing sorghum to be grown with fewer inputs and on marginal land. Variation in total biomass accumulation and grain yield between sorghum accessions, as well as between nitrogen conditions, can be largely explained by differences in vegetative …

Consumer Valuation And Preferences For Sustainably Produced Rice In Ghana, Vera Adabrah-Danquah

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sustainable agricultural production is a systematic concept that integrates environmental health, economic profitability, and social/economic equity goals. Improving the sustainability of food production is of utmost importance to the human race, given the growing population and the increased depletion of natural resources. Improving sustainability is particularly important for rice, a global food staple with a significant environmental footprint. Rice accounts for 10% of global methane emissions. The Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) standard is the first globally recognized certified sustainable production standard for rice. This study focuses on consumers' preferences for sustainable rice in Ghana, including consumers’ perceptions of different SRP's …

Generation And Characterization Of A Multi-Functional Panel Of Monoclonal Antibodies For Sars-Cov-2 Research And Treatment, Lila D. Patterson

All Theses

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 is an ongoing threat to global public health. To this end, intense efforts are underway to develop reagents to aid in diagnostics, enhance preventative measures, and provide therapeutics for managing COVID-19. The recent emergence of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron strains with enhanced transmissibility, altered antigenicity, and significant escape of existing monoclonal antibodies and vaccines underlines the importance of the continued development of such agents. The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and its receptor binding domain (RBD) are critical to viral attachment and host cell entry and are primary targets for antibodies elicited from both vaccination …

Mapping The Sos204 ( Suppressor Of Sunn-1 204) Gene In Medicago Truncatula, Rakshya Shah

All Theses

Nodules in legumes allow the plant to form a symbiotic interaction with bacteria, providing access to the inert N₂ in the atmosphere. The Autoregulation of Nodulation Pathway (AON), a negative regulatory feedback mechanism, is a long-distance signaling system which controls the nodule numbers formed on roots, helping the plant conserve energy by not hosting bacterial symbionts beyond those needed by the plant. A forward genetic screen of the EMS mutagenized supernodulating sunn-1 mutant, a weak allele of SUNN in Medicago truncatula, identified 6 lines of heritable suppressor mutants that reduced the nodulating phenotype from supernodulating to wild-type. We used …

Laser Inscribed Graphene Aptasensor For Detection Of Apple Stem Pitting Virus, Yifan Tang

All Theses

Apple stem pitting virus (ASPV) is a latent RNA virus that could cause significant loss to apple production; early-stage field diagnosis could reduce the economic loss caused by ASPV infection. Biosensor is a promising user-friendly detection tool that could transduce biological or chemical interactions into electric signals. Among various types of biosensors, aptasensor, which use aptamers as recognition elements show potential as a high throughput, in-field test. The goal of this thesis is to develop an electrochemical aptasensor testing system for ASPV detection. The quality control study of laser inscribed graphene (LIG) based working electrode of the biosensor was conducted …

Changes In Energy Metabolism Induced By Pfos And Dietary Oxylipins, William Evans

All Theses

Perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), an emerging environmental toxicant in addition to 9- hydroxyoctadecadienoic acid (9-HODE) and 9-hydroxyoctadecatrienoic acid (9-HOTrE), endogenously produced oxylipins from polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) by Cytochrome P450 2B6 (CYP2B6) have been recently associated with hepatic steatosis and peroxisome proliferator- activated receptor signaling by data produced from our laboratory and others. Given the importance of mitochondrial energy metabolism in the maintenance of lipid homeostasis, an array of extracellular flux assays was performed using HepG2 cells to test for the ability of these compounds to disrupt overall mitochondrial activity and respiration associated with fatty acid oxidation and glycolysis specifically. PFOS and …

Role Of Salinity In Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (Pfos) Bioconcentration Between Aquatic Species And The Differential Regulation Of Transporters In Fundulus Heteroclitus, Tyler Davis

All Theses

Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) is a persistent organic pollutant that is known for its surfactant properties and its resistance to degradation. The persistence and lipophilicity of PFOS in surface waters have led to its bioaccumulation in fish, which in turn leads to its accumulation and toxic effects in humans that consume fish. PFOS is also hypothesized to perturb reproduction and survival of low and mid-trophic level zooplankton species such as Daphnia magna that are food for multiple fish species. In this study, a 21-day D. magna chronic toxicity test was performed using 1,10, 100, 1000, and 5000 ppb of PFOS to …

Precision Management Of Inputs In Cotton And Soybean Production In South Carolina, Kyle Smith

All Theses

The adoption of precision agriculture technologies and developing specific product use recommendations in cotton and soybean production could help farmers reduce input costs and optimize overall farm profitability. The objectives of this research were to evaluate whether or not the use of variable rate seeding in cotton could increase profitability and to determine the rainfast interval of commonly used insecticides in cotton and soybean production. The first trial, variable rate seeding in cotton, was implemented at the Edisto Research and Education Center near Blackville, SC across five years to evaluate variable rate seeding in cotton. Results from trials in South …

It’S Free Real Estate: Benthic Assemblage Composition On Bluehead Chub Nests In Southeastern Streams, Isabel Evelyn

All Theses

Positive interactions such as facilitative habitat modification are often strong drivers in structuring communities. The Bluehead Chub (Nocomis leptocephalus) is a common fish in Piedmont streams of the southeastern USA that builds gravel mound spawning nests that other native fish species utilize as critical spawning substrate. These nests are colonized by other freshwater benthic organisms, though few studies have investigated these colonizing assemblages. The goal of this study was to quantify differences in benthic assemblage composition and abundance between Bluehead Chub nests and unmodified streambed substrate as well as relative taxa microhabitat associations in relation to stream reach-wide …

Management Of Nematodes Associated With Tobacco And Sweet Potato Using Non-Fumigant Approach, Md Shah Alam

All Theses

Tobacco and sweet potato are attacked by several species of plant-parasitic nematodes leading to substantial yield losses. Because host-plant resistance is lacking in commercial cultivars and other common methods of nematode management either have low efficacy or pose adverse effects to the environment, controlled environment studies were conducted to evaluate the efficacy of non-fumigant chemical and biological nematicides against Meloidogyne enterolobii on tobacco and Rotylenchulus reniformis on sweet potato. Results suggest that fluensulfone was the most effective in suppressing M. enterolobii in tobacco, followed by oxamyl and fluopyram. The biological Burkholderia derived biological nematicide did not suppress the nematode population. …

An Investigation Into The Origin And Molecular Mechanism Of Species-Specific Craniofacial Sexual Dimorphism In Lake Malawi Cichlids, Ashleigh Brandon

All Theses

Explaining the underlying source that generates the phenotypic diversity ubiquitous in nature has been a major goal of biologists since the time of Darwin. In addition to the phenotypic variation that exists between different species, another potent source of morphological diversity is found within a species, in the form of phenotypic differences that are specific to males and females, termed sexual dimorphism. The largest craniofacial bone, the mandible, exhibits such extreme sexual dimorphism that it may be used to forensically determine sex. This dimorphism occurs in most of the craniofacial complex and contributes to sex-biased disease frequencies, such as a …

An Agricultural Literacy Assessment Of Social Studies Teachers In South Carolina, Walker Reid

All Theses

Studies in the career development of youth identify middle school as the optimum time for career exploration, as it advances young adolescents’ self-awareness, knowledge of prospective careers, and goal setting. In South Carolina (SC), only 5% (13 of 248) of public middle schools provide agricultural education. The purpose of this study is to measure any increase in agricultural awareness and literacy of South Carolina 8^th-grade social studies teachers participating in a five-day study tour (SOCIAL tour) through mixed method procedures. A pre and post-tour survey given to participants indicated a significant increase in knowledge and perception of agriculture …

Nutrient Dynamics In Restored And Unrestored Urban Streams: A Study In The Southern Piedmont Ecoregion Of South Carolina, Emily Jordan

All Theses

The United States invests billions of dollars annually to perform stream restoration projects, yet few studies have investigated the effects ecological manipulation has on nutrient cycling and associated water quality. Water quality improvement remains a substantial motivation for mitigating catchment scale disturbances, especially in urban streams. Various land use practices impact the transfer and transport of nutrients such as ammonium (NH₄-N), nitrate plus nitrite (NO₃-N + NO₂-N) and soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) from land into the flowing waters of a watershed. The uptake length (S_w), or the distance (m) a dissolved nutrient …

Winter Cover Crop Performance In The Southern Piedmont Region Of South Carolina, Payton Davis

All Theses

Cover crops (CC) offer in-field and environmental benefits when integrated into cropping systems. Low CC adoption in the southern Piedmont of South Carolina is partially due to the lack of information on CC performance and benefits within the region. To address this, eight winter CC and a fallow/pigweed treatment were investigated for their influence on soil temperature, volumetric water content (VWC), percent cover, biomass, and the occurrence of soil water repellency (SWR). A randomized complete block design experiment was conducted in the fall and winter of 2021-2022 (EXP A) and repeated in 2022-2023 (EXP B). Cover crops minimally influenced soil …

Comparing The Economic Efficiency Of Payment Structures To Subsidize On-Farm Greenhouse Gas Abatement In Iowa, David Mansfield

All Theses

Abating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the agricultural sector can help
combat climate change and meet the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Agree-
ment. The agricultural sector can sequester soil organic carbon and, by adopt-
ing conservation-driven land-use decisions, such as reducing or stopping tillage,
increase carbon storage in soil and reduce nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions.
This thesis will compare the cost of achieving different levels of GHG emis-
sions reduction through payments based on: 1) region averages for GHG emis-
sions by crop and practice, without considering additionality, 2) region averages
for GHG emissions by crop and practice …

Hibernating Tricolored Bats At A Southeastern Recreation Site: Microsite Use And Public Perceptions, Rebecca Brown

All Theses

High bat mortality from white-nose syndrome (WNS) has increased the need to manage hibernation sites. Management decisions should be based on science, and when sites are accessible to the public, also need to consider human dimensions. We used Stumphouse Tunnel, a recreation site and tricolored bat (Perimyotis subflavus) hibernaculum in northwestern South Carolina, as a case study to understand potential conflicts between conservation and recreation. The population declined by 90% after the arrival of white-nose syndrome (WNS), followed by stabilization and slight increases. Because the increase was associated with more bats roosting in the publicly accessible section, a potential …

Immediate Response Of Bats To Prescribed Fire And Impact Of Experiences On Women's Self-Image In Natural Resources Professions, Zebria Hicks

All Theses

To inform use of prescribed fire management practice in the southeastern US, we studied its impact on bats, which are important and at-risk species. We evaluated if prescribed fire had a positive, neutral, or negative effect on bat activity in the two weeks following the burns. We recorded bat activity after prescribed burns in February and March 2022 in northwestern South Carolina in select hardwood and pine stands and control sites ≥ 500 m from burn boundaries. We measured insect abundance, canopy cover, basal area, and understory density at each site. We recorded 687 passes during our 45-day study period. …